Neurology & Pain Management Coding Alert

Don’t forget to check the documentation of status epilepticus. ICD-10 will bring big changes to your epilepsy reporting -- more specific codes for partial seizures and less specific codes for infantile spasms. Keep your focus on capturing the presence of status epilepticus to accurately report diagnoses for simple and complex partial seizures and infantile spasms. When reporting partial seizures, adopt the following sequence to get to the most accurate code: determine simple vs complex; confirm intractable vs not intractable; and check documentation for presence of status epilepticus. Check for Status Epilepticus in Complex Partial Seizures When reporting complex partial seizures (whether intractable or not), check for documentation for status epilepticus. In ICD-9, you report code 345.40 (Localization-related [focal] [partial)] epilepsy and epileptic syndromes with complex partial seizures, without mention of intractable epilepsy) for complex partial seizures that are not intractable. In ICD-10, you will choose from codes G40.201 (Localization-related [focal] [partial] [...]